Archive for the ‘Political Standing’ Category

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N.H. Democratic Party: Without a presidential primary coming up it is a hard environment for Democrats to recruit dynamic speakers for big fund-raisers like donors have been used to seeing. So they get credit for scoring Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer for their 100 Club dinner in April.

NH GOP Field Director B.J. Perry: Tuesday marked the end of the special election season and it’s time for a simple shout out to Perry, who is earning rock star status in Republican circles. Republicans won 7 out of 8 special elections. In 6 of those, Republicans won by at least 18 points.  The other win was in a seat they never should have won (Concord). When a 2012 presidential candidate is lucky enough to hire Perry it will be worthy of a press mention.

Bill Binnie: In a week in which it seemed nobody wanted to get a win, he chugged along, and in the process, managed to dispel the notion that Kelly Ayotte is only person who can beat Hodes.  Oh, by the way, he has a few ads up too, in case you haven’t noticed.

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas: He’s pretty much getting his budget intact without any fight. Even Democrats are suggesting that Gatsas might be a really good mayor after all.

David Bates and Kevin Smith: They made the plan to put these marriage questions on town meeting ballots in an orchestrated fashion that looked brilliant.  It won’t change the dynamics of the law, but it will force Republicans in primaries to move to the right on social issues.

State Sen. Jackie Cilley: She called out her own party’s governor suggesting that his administration (or Lynch personally) misled her on the LLC tax. Cilley seems to be the first Democratic politician to recognize that 2010 is “each man for himself.”

Republican consultant Mark Sanborn: He is “safe and sound.”

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Eddie Edwards: Nobody can understand why he went public to begin with.  He made the mistake of being the story.

John Lynch and Democratic legislative leaders: The good news for Lynch is that he hasn’t fallen under 50% yet in any public poll.  However, the hits just keep on coming on the budget.  The House overrode leadership and voted to repeal the campground tax.  Lynch is backpedaling on LLC, saying that it can be eliminated with spending cuts, falling back to the Republican position, and in the process having business owners ask why they didn’t do this to begin with.  Meanwhile in the Senate, Lou D’Allesandro is moving forward on his “reasonable compensation” bill and ruffling the feathers of leadership there. And where is Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan’s S.B. 505 again, when will it come back and are we sure there are the votes for this thing?

Paul Hodes: Great, just what he needed, a $200K ad buy against him.

Russ Prescott: People really shouldn’t spread rumors, particularly if they are false. And false rumors have no place in a newspaper. But this is the Internet and everyone knows you can’t believe anything you read on here. So, rumor has it that former State Sen. Russ Prescott is running for his old seat against Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan. I know, I know, if he were actually running he would need to campaign, give speeches and raise money. He would need issues to run on. But it’s not like any are falling in his lap. All snark aside, Prescott was never the perfect candidate to take on Hassan, but if he isn’t even going to try he needs to get out and let someone else do it. If Doug Scamman says he won’t do it then has anyone asked Stella?

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Maggie Hassan: The Senate Majority foreshadowed her huge policy gamble of S.B. 505 and some predicted/vowed that this would be the week when the Hassan for Governor 2012 campaign would be derailed. But that didn’t happen, did it? Setting aside the policy idea itself and focusing purely on the politics, Hassan was setting the agenda [...]

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John Lynch: So let’s get this straight: his likely Republican opponent gets in one night and the next day he gets another flood where he competently plays the hero. The luck of this guy…
John H. Sununu: Unlike his previous three predecessors he actually got a credible Republican candidate for governor against Lynch. Sununu’s constant prediction [...]

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Dave Boutin: When Boutin got into the race last summer it struck people as a bit premature. After all he announced his run for a race wouldn’t open up for months, if it opened up at all. In the end the head start and the seriousness to his campaigning paid off with bigger than expected [...]

Every week Political Standing tracks who is up or down in New Hampshire politics